Apple ditches video evidence

Drops antenna clips in bin, walks away whistling

Apple has expunged videos of competing cellphones exhibiting comparative reception problems, perhaps hoping that if it can just stop talking about the problem then everyone will forget it happened.

Having told everyone that the iPhone 4 doesn't have reception problems, and that every cellphone exhibits the same symptoms, Apple has now removed videos demonstrating the latter point. Techcrunch noticed the videos vanishing from the company's site and YouTube channel, with the former now displaying details of Apple's shiny new antenna development suite (except in Canada for some reason) instead of badmouthing the competition.

It's possible that such thinking is behind Apple's decision to remove the videos of their competitors' products; a more positive approach, or perhaps Cupertino is nervous of looking foolish in the face of increasing evidence that the iPhone 4 does indeed have a problem. The competitors have risen to the challenge, with robust denials and comedic advertising, which is playing in Apple's court.

And that's probably the motivation here – Apple thrives by saying that its products are simply better than everyone else's, and anyone who can't see that is clearly not cool enough. Running down the competition is very uncool, and it's not the Apple way of doing things.

Pictures of antenna labs do look cool, and don't risk looking foolish – the real question is why the comparative videos went up in the first place. It seems the antenna issue rattled Apple into rushing out damning videos to support Steve's assertion that there was no issue, and it's taken the company a while to get back to the business of reminding everyone how marvellous it is. ®